The Wilderness Weeks...

I am on a health kick.

Not only is this exceedingly dull, but it is also largely incompatible with pretty much every Nigella recipe I have yet to tackle. Detoxing, butter and sugar do not mix (more is the shame) and so my culinary endeavours for the foreseeable must rein themselves away from all that I hold dear and confine themselves to lentils, legumes and the like.

I can offer a nod to the redoubtable smoked trout pate mentioned previously on this blog - skimp on the oil and swap regular cream cheese for Philly Extra Light and it still tastes mighty fine (and it works just as well with a tin of tuna to boot).

But fear not - while the cake tins are in exile I shall instead scroll through some of the many dishes I have tried but not yet had a chance to write about. And as I describe to you their delights I shall enjoy them anew, albeit vicariously. In the meantime do pass the alfalfa...

Sweet and Salty Peanut Biscuits

It should be said that my passion for baking is somewhat at odds with the healthy eating regime newly instituted at home. And so it is that the merest hint of a visitor is taken as a welcome excuse to divert from the straight and narrow and sends me scurrying to the kitchen to get my pinny on.

I had been meaning to try this recipe for a while, a whim based somewhat tenuously on my addiction to Peanut Butter M&Ms (thankfully not widely available in the UK otherwise I would end up looking like Giant Haystacks circa 1974). Nonetheless in my book salty peanut/butter plus sugar is a winning combination so how could I resist?

As there were to be just four adults consuming said treat (toddler participation vetoed on grounds of nuts = potential choking hazard) I figured I'd halve the recipe. But then the very thought of having to work out what constituted half an egg sent me all gung-ho and I threw caution to the wind and went for it verbatim..

Thirty biscuits? No prob - we'll get through 'em in no time (close eyes to try to block out Giant Haystacks images that are back to taunt me...)

There were unexpected issues in tracking down Trex - which, when finally sighted in a local megastore appeared to come only in industrial quantities - but it was worth the hunt (trek/s?!) for the texture was as light and crumbly as any biscuit lover could desire.

Quick to cook - and easy to make too - at least bar the sugar dusting, a practice at which I appear to be largely incompetent (bear witness to the not-very-sugary-topping on a number of my efforts)

I could blame the recipe for not spelling out in words of one syllable that this step needs to be repeated from scratch for each and every biscuit - or I could admit that my cack-handedness and desire to grab a quick kip while the tiddler slept was more probably the reason for my undoing.

To anyone flicking enthusiastically through Domestic Goddess in search of the details (page 55 since you ask) I would counsel that unlike me you ensure a more-than-liberal sugar pressing on every biccie. Otherwise they just aren't sweet enough.

Will I make them again? Had the visitors not cancelled last minute (unforseen lurg) leaving all 30 cookies to be consumed by the two of us alone I would have said yes. As it is I think it's going to be a very, very long time til either of us will be able to face another peanut in any form whatsoever.

Fairy Cakes - The Final Chapter

I am aware that I must repent both for my lack of posts and what appears to be an obsession with fairy cakes. And so I shall bid the beauteous buns farewell in this valedictory entry.

First - may I present to you a creation that I had intended to call "The Towering Inferno" - but then the sparklers refused to light so it was less conflagration, more damp squib. We got there in the end, although the stress temporarily affected my ability to capture the moment on film, hence a picture with strange and inactive grey sticks dotted about the buttercream. (They are sparklers I tell you, sparklers...)

I had puzzled long and hard over what to make for my mum's special birthday. I wasn't sure she'd want a Peppa (current speciality - see earlier entry). Nor a monkey come to that. I wasn't convinced that traditional royal icing would make it 200 miles up a motorway unscathed, although I am (if memory serves me right) a dab hand with a bit of lattice work so perhaps another time.

And so this is the end result. As you can see - it went down a treat.

My final foray into fairydom is a gift for a reader of this blog. I had promised to make something for her and the birth of her second beautiful son seemed the right occasion on the basis that new babies = lack of sleep = lack of energy = need for calories.

Honourable intentions perhaps, but making them half asleep on a Wednesday evening proved that the old adage is true:

S/he who bakes when not awake is likely to leave the sugar on the scales. (And let me tell you - cakes without sugar are rank...)

Take two - and this time success. White chocolate buttercream whipped up between breakfast and the nursery run. A treat for a new mum - and a day spent removing hundreds and thousands from the far reaches of the kitchen for me (will I never learn..?)

Burnt Butter Cupcakes

To celebrate the visit of my dear twitter (and real life) chum @blueberryathome it seemed fitting to not only roll out the red carpet but also to bake, bake, bake.

A perfect opportunity to try out one of the many recipes I had earmarked to try. And a perfect lesson in how NOT to press ahead without giving it a proper read through first...

I admit it was ambitious to plan biscuits and cakes given I had just an hour in which to prepare them - an hour which also included tidying the house and occupying the toddler. A flawed plan borne of over ambition.

To be fair, had it been your bog standard fairy buns it wouldn't have been an issue, but the clue to my undoing lies in the title of the recipe. Burnt butter.

So - how come if you are NOT intending to burn butter it blackens in seconds and yet here, as I stirred and stirred and waited and waited, it seemed to take an eternity. Not only this - but I came further unstuck when I read on to discover that after this lengthy process it was essential to allow the butter to resolidify before incorporating with the rest of the ingredients. It goes without saying that it was an unseasonably warm day and this took forever. And a couple of days.

I knocked up the biscuits (old faithfuls, Rachel Allen - sorry) while I waited and managed to get the cupcakes into the oven in the nick of time.

And then I read the rest of the recipe.

Buttercream icing? No sweat until...the same process again with the butter????? Why didn't it just tell me that at the beginning and let me get the whole darned process over in one go? (Or - to be fair - why did I not actually read the recipe that has been sitting on my shelf for the last year and work this out for myself)

Time was against me and bog standard buttercream it was, cakes barely iced before the doorbell rang.

I was possibly too frazzled to provide an in-depth assessment of the results but the golden colour and nutty taste were duly noted by the rest of those who consumed them with gusto and the whole lot vanished so fast I figure I'm going to have to do them again (and properly!) - but perhaps not against the clock next time...

Girls Night In (& Guilt...)

There is much to feel guilty about...

...telling the toddler that a mouse ate the chocolate from her party bag (in my defence it was a) delicious and b) surely this is ok for the sake of her teeth?)

...neglecting my blog for too long (though to be fair I have been cooking - just not writing about it til now)

Oh so many things.

And then a girls' night in, a week or so ago, when I turned to a Delia standby even though the post it notes sticking out of the top of my Nigella collection (yellow for 'made', white for 'still to try', orange for 'ran out of yellow') seemed to taunt me with my disloyalty every time I turned my head.

To be fair, between work and the toddler there was no time for shopping so it was a case of what's in the fridge? And what on earth can I do with that little lot?

The answer is roasted vegetables with couscous and a harissa style dressing - though (as is my wont) I didn't so much follow the recipe as use it as a guide. The veg were aubergine, sweet potato, red onion, field mushrooms and baby plum tomatoes, as that's what I had and that's what I like - oh and a stray red pepper found its way into the mix as well. I'm not sure what the recipe advises but I do this bit pretty often (great with a piece of salmon) so I went slightly off piste, learning my lesson at the end when I went for the traditional slug of balsamic to bring out the flavour of the caramelised veg - and realised that n a fug of exhaustion and absentmindedness I had accidentally used sake instead. Um...Japan meets the Med anyone? Er...fusion?

Luckily you couldn't really taste it and the rest was easy. Chop some feta and mix into the cooled veg (Delia says goats cheese but a) there was none in the fridge and b) feta seemed a safer bet as goats cheese seems to provoke strong and not always positive reactions. Plonk (not a culinary term I have heard Nigella or Delia use but hey ho) on top of a bed of couscous and whack some rocket on top. Whip up a dressing of olive oil, lime juice, tomato puree and cayenne pepper (you are meant to use cumin too but I'm not a great fan - so I didn't) and hey presto. Supper for four, demolished faster than you can say "sorry Nigella, promise to use one of yours next time...honest."

For pud fresh strawberries and a batch of Ms Lawson's Rocky Road (see earlier entry - this time I remembered to turn off the heat before adding the marshmallows so they didn't melt - hurrah). Made enough for a small army - but hey, it was a girls' night and hey, it was chocolate.

My husband was singularly unimpressed with what we left him - just one little teeny tiny little square. Oops

Birthday Biscuits

Some time ago the child and I experimented - unsuccessfully - with Butter Cut Out Biscuits (Domestic Goddess)

We followed the instructions to the letter - and yet the resultant dough was saltier than a salty thing dripping in sea water. I checked the recipe - yes, 1 tsp of salt. I checked the measuring spoon in the sink to check I hadn't accidentally used a tablespoon instead of a tea spoon - but no - all present and correct.

The biscuits and the remainder of the dough went straight in the bin and we moved on to rolling out recipes new - in every sense. But with a party to prepare for and requests for "cutting shapes mummy" we gave it another go. This time I added just half a teaspoon of salt and the results were perfect.

The tiddler and I rolled and cut and rolled and cut experimented with hearts, stars and numbers. Twelve minutes in the oven, a few minutes to cool and on with the decorating. For the sake of expedience I did the icing. The child was put in charge of sprinkles (100s and 1000s - huge mistake - they roll and bounce everywhere. Next time we'll try a slightly more tameable vermicelli variety).

Before the entire house got covered we instituted a dipping procedure (iced biscuit into sprinkle bowl and hey presto) although the child quickly discovered the joy of decorating her own sticky fingers (dip, lick, dip some more...carnage).




But by hook or by crook, the end product was delicious and much admired (plate of spares for mums and dads vanished so fast we got the insect spray out and went in search of a plague of locusts...) And better still - we've got more dough in the freezer to try it all again

Sweet Treats For A Happy Birthday

The child turned two last week. When we asked what she wanted for her birthday her answer was "a cake and a candle". How could mummy refuse?

We celebrated with a family tea on the day itself followed by a party for her friends at the weekend. I don't need much of an excuse (OK - I will use any excuse) to get the baking gear out so not surprisingly this presented me with an opportunity to really go to town.

First up the cake. The wee one loves monkeys so a monkey it had to be. I hummed and ha-ed between Nigella's Victoria Sponge and a tried-and-tested-so-much-I-can-do-with-my-eyes-shut one-bowl chocolate cake. The latter won on the basis that monkeys are brown...

So the cake itself was super simple to make. I trawled the net for piccies of monkey cakes til I found a couple I liked and based on those photos drew a template on a piece of A4. Sounds simple but you should bear in mind that I failed art O-level (yes, I am that old...) not once but twice. Whipped up chcolate fudge and regular buttercream icing then mixed the two together fot the lighter brown.

The cake making was interspersed around a vital Champions League tie, one that ended badly so at least making a monkey face provided some form of distraction and I managed to avoid getting tears of frustration in the icing. Instead I took out my angst on the ready-to-roll (black and white - used to make the eyes and surprisingly satisfying in terms of bashing)

On the big day itself the child received many amazing gifts but when asked what she had had for her birthday the reply was always the same - a monkey cake with candles. Bless.

I had been planning the cake for the party for - ooh - months on end. A farmyard scene with animal cupcakes (based on Nigella fairy cakes - natch) all around. The cupcakes did indeed come to fruition (and went down very well as going home gifts) but despite tinkering with varous designs for barns I never quite got what I wanted. So - last minute change of plan - a Peppa cake instead.

Given my ineptitude in the artistry department I found it surprisingly simple to make - though colouring the icing pink left my hands looking like I had single-handedly murdered at least a dozen people. Hey ho - the birthday girl and her friends all loved the result and I guess my hands will return to normal at some time in the near future.